Doctor Spotlight: Dr. Leon Varjabedian

Dr. Leon Varjabedian is an experienced interventional cardiologist with multiple years of experience in the medical field. He takes an interest in cutting-edge minimally invasive cardiac procedures, including coronary arterial disease, peripheral vascular disease, and Structural heart disease (i.e. Valvular heart disease). Dr. Leon Varjabedian is a board-certified member of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, National Board of Echocardiography, and ABIM-Cardiovascular disease.

Aside from being a career choice, Dr. Varjabedian has several publications to his name, including CardioMEMS in a Busy Cardiology: Less than Optimal Implementation of a Valuable Tool to Reduce Heart Failures Readmissions, Cardioprotection by Metformin: Beneficial Effects Beyond Glucose Reduction, and several other related publications in the medical journal.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Reality

“We saw three different waves of the virus. People were markedly confused and frightened during the first wave in spring of 2020 because no one understood clearly what we were dealing with, this led to patients unnecessarily avoiding hospital visits. During the second wave mid summer of 2020, the misinformation subsided immediately after the CDC guidelines were shared, however public deception was prevalent mostly via social media, but in the third wave starting November 2020, we had a lot of patients that are occupying the ICU beds. We had difficulty finding a bed for critically sick cardiac patients because COVID-19 patients have occupied all the beds, this led to cardiac procedures being postponed for an extended period of time resulting in non COVID related morbidity.,” said Dr. Varjabedian in an interview with Top Doctor Magazine.

Pandemic and Telemedicine: How to mitigate the challenge through Telehealth

Telemedicine is an effective alternative to in-patient service, especially during the pandemic, when patients were scared to visit the hospitals. Patients are generally relieved with telemedicine. Still, it falls short regarding the physical exam part of the service. “With telemedicine, the element of touching patients and physically examining them is lost. We depend so much on history and subtle signs we see during the video session, which is not enough for physicians to make an accurate clinical judgment,” explained Dr. Varjabedian.

Overcoming the pandemic through Vaccination, Social-distancing, and Specific Antiviral medication

Vaccination is the most vital tool to help create a population that is immune from the virus. In this regard, Pfizer and Moderna have done a great job by developing a vaccine in a very short time. Social distancing guidelines are crucial as well. People need to change the way they socialize until there is a drastic improvement to the status quo. Ultimately, specific antiviral medication towards treatment can also help. “Unfortunately, this virus will not completely disappear by itself. There are a lot of proactive things that we have to do,” Dr. Varjabedian informed.

Coronavirus and its Mutating Variants

Dr. Varjabedian warned that the reports of the virus mutation are disturbing. There is a feeling of uncertainty whether the vaccines developed so far will be efficacious against this new mutation. For Dr. Varjabedian, a mutation that is so fast and that superseded the vaccine efficacy would be a big problem. “If the population is not vaccinated before the virus takes a chance to mutate and become more dangerous, that is worrisome for me,” Dr. Varjabedian complained.

COVID-19 Devastating Effect and The Future of Medicine

2020 was a very gloomy year for many physicians. Many patients suffered and died alone in miserable conditions, which affected everyone, including the health care providers. The situation was so much for physicians to handle. Dr. Varjabedian hopes that things will improve in the New Year.

Ultimately, the vaccine was developed at a record speed, and it will be a game-changer for new ways of approving treatments in the future. Traditionally, medications go through phases of trials for years before getting approved. Dr. Varjabedian hopes that we can take advantage of this to cut back on the bureaucracy and the slow process necessary to approve new medications.